The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 03, 1990
Filed:
Dec. 29, 1987
Walter T Hartwell, St. Charles, IL (US);
Mark A Johnson, Wheaton, IL (US);
Joseph Picone, Richardson, TX (US);
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
A customer inquiry unit that allows the recognition of human speech in the presence of an initial prerecorded message transmitted by the customer inquiry unit via a telephone network. The customer inquiry system is designed to be utilized to respond to inquiries received via the telephone network. The system functions by responding to a telephone call received via the network to transmit an initial speech message to the customer. Due to a variety of network problems, a portion of the speech energy of the message is reflected back to the inquiry system. This reflected energy is commonly referred to as an echo. If the customer starts to speak before the inquiry system has finished the initial message, the system utilizes an echo canceler to remove the echo received back from the telephone network and only transfers the speech response to a recognition subsystem. The echo canceler adapts to the telephone network during the initial portion of the initial speech message before the customer can respond.